Home Office

Repatriation: Afghanistan

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an estimate of the number of (a) British citizens and (b) accompanying family members who have travelled to the UK directly from Kabul since 1 September 2021.

Kevin Foster: Given the situation in Afghanistan at this time there is no directly travel link between Kabul and the UK.Any travel to the UK from Afghanistan will involve making a journey to a neighbouring country from which direct travel links to the UK operate.

Passports: Applications

Yvette Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of passport applications have been waiting for a decision for more than six weeks as of 13 July 2022.

Kevin Foster: The published processing time for the standard UK service is up to ten weeks. However, the vast majority of applications continue to be processed within six weeks.

HM Passport Office: Staff

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) permanent, (b) full-time equivalent, (c) agency and (d) other status staff were working in HM Passport Office in each year since 2016.

Kevin Foster: Staffing numbers at Her Majesty’s Passport Office has increased by over 1200 since April 2021. Its recruitment will continue to cover any attrition, to ensure the passport service remains fully resourced.We are committed to ensuring public services are run as efficiently and effectively as possible. Given the elevated demand will not continue indefinitely and is directly linked to the estimated 5m passports not renewed during the pandemic period, it is appropriate to have flexible resources available. Therefore, while there has been recruitment of civil servants, the use of agency workers is appropriate in this context.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Housing Associations: Natural Gas

Kim Leadbeater: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to provide support to residents of housing associations who are impacted by the rises in commercial prices of the gas that housing associations procure.

Greg Hands: On 29 July, the Government confirmed that funding will be available to provide equivalent support of £400 for energy bills for the 1% of households who will not be reached through the Energy Bills Support Scheme, including residents of housing associations who do not have a domestic electricity meter or a direct relationship with an energy supplier. An announcement with details on how and when these households across Great Britain can access this support will be made in the Autumn.